Region Six secondary schools start benefiting from BCB/ Lochan Samkarran Cricket Programme

…Region Five schools to start benefiting shortly

Fourteen secondary schools in Region Six, East Berbice-Corentyne, represented mainly by their head-teachers, presented themselves at the St Francis Community Centre Training Hall last week to receive close to two million dollars’ worth of uniforms and cricket gear as part of the Berbice Cricket Board /Lochan Samkarran School Cricket programme.
Three of these beneficiary schools were unrepresented at this simple distribution exercise, and would receive their supply of items later this week, when executives of the BCB visit them.
Each school received a package that consisted of 15 pairs of branded white cricket uniforms, two boxes of red balls, and some cricket gear, among which were bats, batting gloves, seed guards and wicket-keeping gloves.
The schools which benefited were Line Path Secondary, Skeldon High, Black Bush Polder, Manchester, Winifred Gaskin, Corentyne Comprehensive, JC Chandisingh, Lower Corentyne, Port Mourant, Canje Secondary, Berbice High, Vryman’s Erven, BEI and Tutorial Academy. Absent were Tagore Memorial, Central Corentyne and New Amsterdam.
BCB President Hilbert Foster has urged the teachers to take care of the items, as they were obtained at great cost to Mr Samkarran, an overseas-based businessman. Foster disclosed that with donation of these items, the second phase of the BCB historic programme would start shortly, with coaches going into schools under the Namilco Thunderbolt Coaching project.
The BCB executives, which included Foster, Secretary Angela Haniff, Competitions Chairman Leslie Soloman and Asst Secretary Ameer Rahaman, discussed the schedule for the coaching programme, which would involve 15 coaches in Region Six. Foster has also said that at the end of the coaching, a squad of 60 players would be named by the coaches to participate in a special two-week coaching camp, which would be followed by four different tournaments at the interzone level.
The zones: West Berbice, New Amsterdam/Canje, Lower Corentyne and Upper Corentyne, would each provide a champion. The four champions would then play in a special tournament to decide on an overall Berbice Secondary School Champion.
Six schools in Region Five would shortly collect their uniforms and gear, and would also be involved in the coaching programme.
Foster has expressed much gratitude to Mr Samkarran for his assistance, and has said that Samkarran’s contribution is most welcome. He has also assured the sponsor that the donated items would be used for their intended purpose, and disclosed that the BCB is confident that a batch of over 20 national players would emerge from the programme over the next few months.
Several representatives of the beneficiary schools have expressed gratitude to the BCB and Mr Samkarran for the assistance received, and have pledged to take care of the items.